It's not hard to find people who hate flying, and the intrusive security resulting from the Muslim terrorist attacks and attempts from the early 2000s has only made that worse. For many who can only afford cattle class, a.k.a. coach or economy, the dislike is to do with discomfort. We are among those who dislike flying for these reasons, unless we get a window seat on a clear day, which compensates.

Aviophobia, however, is the fear of flying, a level of anxiety so great that it prevents a
person from traveling by air, or causes great distress to a person when
he or she is compelled to travel by air. Apparently about 1 person in 10 will simply not fly unless they really have to. For a country like NZ which is surrounded by sea and a long way from anywhere else (even a voyage to Australia will take 3 days by sea on a container ship), that has an obvious economic impact.

There are several courses offered that should help people overcome irrational fears in various countries including online (some free) - a list is on this webpage

This pic, attributed to Neils Peter Brown, shows the base of the Crichton's Bus Service which operated between Johnsonville and Wellington. It was on on the west side of Johnsonville Road about where the entrance to the Johnsonville Shopping Mall now is.

The service station, in common with most in that era, sold different brands of fuel and oil - Shell, Texaco, Big Tree, Atlantic and Castrol.

The centre vehicle is a 'service car' with the destination of "Chateau", a reference to Chateau Tongoriro in the volcanic plateau.

This 2,120 feet (646 m) long cable-stayed bridge over the Penobscot River was completed in 1997 replacing a bridge from 1931. It is 135 feet (41 m) above the water. Apart from the engineering, the notable feature is the Penobscot Narrows Observatory, the tallest public bridge observatory in the world. The tower is 420 feet (128 m) high and allows visitors to view the bridge, the nearby Fort Knox State Historic Site, the Penobscot River and the Bay. (Picture source)

The first two lines on the left are electric multiple units, for the time being used on the Johnsonville and Paekakariki lines, while the others are lines of wooden bodied carriages are for supplementing the Paekakariki EMU trains at peak times and all the Hutt Valley services, pending their electrification. A couple of steam locomotives can be seen shunting in the distance. Another photo considered for, but not used in the book Wellington Transport Memories.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Before there was any way to fly through the air other than in a balloon, this was one fanciful notion that someone came up with, first recorded in the mid 15th century.

A few years ago there was a little controversy about a toy broomstick that Mattel made which achieved popularity with females for a different reason, according to this Time magazine article: "Well, this was one way to keep Harry Potter fans interested as they grew up. Modeled after Harry's first broom, Mattel's now discontinued battery-operated Nimbus 2000
featured a grooved stick and handle for kids who wanted to ride it
around the house. The dubious part: it vibrated. Some of the (now
deleted) comments on Amazon were so good, they had to be written with a
wink: "I'm 32 and enjoy riding the broom as much as my 12 yr old and 7
year old," wrote one satisfied customer. We bet."

Constructed of brick in 1889, this building served until 1923. It was designed in the Romanesque style, with a large clock tower in the center. This building also contained 33 hotel rooms as well as a restaurant, barbershop, and other conveniences for the traveler.

In 1923, a hotel room in the depot caught fire which quickly spread throughout the building. The blaze was unable to be controlled and the interior was destroyed, leaving the walls and clock tower standing in a fragile state.

The replacement present-day building was completed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style in 1924. It was last used by Amtrak in 1997 and now houses museums, including the Union Pacific-supported Utah State Railroad museum and the Browning – Kimball Classic Car Museum

The packet ship Shenandoah was built in 1840 by John Vaugn
& Son at Philadelphia, Pa. for Thomas P. Cope & Son, better
known as the Cope Line. Wealthy Philadelphia Quakers, the Copes
transported about 60,000 passengers—mostly Irish immigrants—from
Liverpool to Philadelphia from 1820-1870. More

Presumably the UP train was just there to make the label look good, although the grower may have shipped their produce with the railroad. After being out of refrigerated fruit haulage for a while, UP returned to it a few years ago - details on their website

This standard gauge railway was opened in 1876 and reached a maximum extent of 33 km. The maximum gradient was 5.8%. It was predominately steam worked until the last few years and lasted to 1964 when it was replaced by road transport. Many
of the civil engineering works that were built for the the railway still exist today, some of which are used by the
road

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All at Sea: stories of New Zealand seafarers

Narratives from interviews conducted over several years with 16 merchant navy sailors - 14 men and 2 women - who recounted their stories from the last full fledged sailing ship, the Pamir being returned to her home country of Finland after WWII to recent stories on today's inter-island ferries and coastal vessels, as well as international cargo and passenger ships which sailed to various parts of the globe. A full range of occupations are covered from Deck Boy, Engineer, Steward to Master as well as harbour pilots, union leaders and shipping company executives.

NZR Memorabilia

A fabulous new book containing many colourful illustrations of old postcards, pamphlets, posters, and a wide range of objects that have been used by the NZR and its personnel from the 1860s to the present time. Together they tell in visual form the importance of NZR to NZ and its people over the past 150 years and provides a useful reference for collectors.

Voyage to Gallipoli

Details of the troopships to the Gallipoli campaign of WW1 and more WW1 naval history.